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amBX Usability Enhancements

I use amBX Gaming Lights and while I like them, there are some rough edges. If my computer would go to sleep, the driver/services wouldn’t work correctly unless they were restarted. And applications like amBX Illuminate would hang as a result, so that needed to be restarted too.

So I wrote a batch script to do this. Then I used a scheduled task to check the event log for the Power event that meant the system was waking up. The batch scripts need to run as Administrator, but scheduled tasks have an option for this. Cool, now the lights work properly after the computer wakes.

But then I decided I wanted shortcut keys to manually stop and start the lights. So I bound the batch scripts to the extra keys on my Logitech G710+ Mechanical Gaming Keyboard. But the batch script needs to run as Administrator and there wasn’t a built-in way to do that with the keyboard configuration, so I had to find ways to make that happen. Now the scripts auto elevate which is seemless if UAC is off. With UAC on this will trigger a prompt, but at least it will work.

Then there was the minor problem that killing Illuminate would leave orphaned icons in the system tray. This too could be solved with a bit of work.

Included is:

A script to (re)start the amBX services and amBX Illuminate

A script to kill amBX Illuminate

RefreshNotificationArea, which is called from the scripts to clear orphan icons in the system tray after killing processes

XML export of a scheduled task to run the restart script when the system wakes from sleep.

XML export of a keyboard profile for Logitech’s Gaming Software, which binds G1 to (re)start the lights, and G2 to turn them off.

The scheduled task and keyboard profile assume the scripts are in C:AppsamBX. Be sure to update the path if needed.

Though the scripts are stopping and starting amBX Illuminate, the same principle should apply if the scripts are changed to reference an alternative program like Aurora Synesthesia or glOW.